On today’s edition of The Editors, Rich and Co. discuss the startling assassination attempt on Donald Trump over the weekend. They home in on the images and videos from that day, and Rich says that “without the photographs, the event wouldn’t quite exist in our minds the way it does, especially the one with the fist raised and the blood on his face and the American flag in the background.
“This is iconic. This is an image that will live for a very, very long time.”
Phil Klein agrees, commenting on “just how remarkable it was, and particularly given how little time lapsed [when Trump was ducking down]. So, if you watch the video, it’s not as if he’s down there for five, ten minutes to sort of regain his composure and settle down. I mean, literally, he was just shot in the head and . . . one minute basically transpires in the time that he’s shot in the head, he ducks down, he’s bloodied, he’s got all these Secret Service agents on top of him. And then he’s up within a minute, and he still had the presence of mind to say, ‘Wait, wait.’ And . . . the fist pump and saying, ‘Fight, fight, fight.’
“And Trump, after he fist-pumped, it turned around the crowd and suddenly they’re cheering and chanting ‘USA.’ So it does also show the power . . . of leadership in that moment.
“And even [with] the most cynical interpretation of it . . . it’s still amazing. I mean, I don’t know if any of us would have been able to do that.”
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